Esbensen And Huizina

Amy Doyle September 22, 2014. 0840319
Analysis of Esbensen and Huizina’s “Community Structure and Drug Use The article “Community Structure and Drug Use: From a Social Disorganization Perspective,” by Finn-Aage Esbensen and David Huizinga discusses drug usage, the reasons of drug use and where drugs are consumed by adolescents in neighbourhoods characterized by social disorganization and high crime rate. Social disorganization in terms of drug usage states that characteristics or the ecology of a neighbourhood can influence adolescents to use drugs like marijuana,
In order to analyze the differences between clusters, social disorganization theory needs to be accompanied with other perspectives in order to answer the question of why some youth use drugs for acceptance. Cohen’s Subculture of Delinquency theory states that disadvantaged youth, those from disadvantaged neighbourhoods we see in social disorganization theory, end up in gangs because of status frustration (Williams and McShane 2014, 94). Those in disadvantaged communities struggle to achieve the same status as their middle class peers, thus, disadvantaged youth look towards subcultures like gangs to be accepted (Williams and McShane 2014, 94). In the case of drug usage, I think social disorganization theory is a good starting point however, investigating the issue of youth and drugs with other theories like Cohen’s Subculture of Delinquency can further social disorganization theory’s argument as to why some youth use drugs to be accepted. Moreover, a further question regarding the black-dominated cluster is why are youth in the black-dominated cluster trying to be accepted, presumably into subculture, more than the other two clusters? Perhaps, ethnicity is a factor to consider in youth drug usage. Overall, I have learned that although social disorganization theory is useful, it is important to utilize other theories and consider other perspectives like a micro perspective to solidify the understanding of